Inter-hospital 'patient expect' calls of clinical handovers for expected patients transferred from rural to metropolitan hospitals: A retrospective clinical audit

Abstract

Patients requiring inter-hospital air transport across large geographical spaces areat significant risk of adverse outcomes. The aims of this study were to examine the charac-teristics of clinical handover conducted by telephone and subsequently transcribed in medicalrecords during the inter-hospital transfer of rural patients, and to identify any deficits of thistelephone clinical handover. A retrospective audit was conducted of transcribed telephone han-dovers (‘patient expect’ calls) occurring with inter-hospital transfers from two rural hospitalsto a metropolitan tertiary hospital of all rural patients (n = 127) between January and June2012. Patient transport between various sites occurr..